Past Mistakes
by MerlinHalliwell
Summary: AU Ben Turner & Melinda Halliwell go back 15yrs into the past, to save the parents they never knew NOT COMPLETE YET, 6th CHAPTER NOW UP My first fanfic
1. The Mistake

**Disclaimer:**  I don't own Charmed or any of its characters; my story is fan fiction and no breach of copyright is intended.

**Background information:** Cole is half demon (he never became the source) and is married to Phoebe.  Ben Turner is Cole & Phoebe's son he is 2 months old and named after Cole's father.  Melinda Halliwell-Wyatt is Leo & Piper's daughter she is 3 years old (they binded her powers just after she was born).   Prue is dead and Paige lives with them at the manor.

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**15 years earlier (2006):**

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At the manor;

Piper watched as Melinda leant over her cousin's crib, she loved to make him laugh.  Piper knew the others hadn't agreed with her about binding Melinda's powers, but she didn't want her to grow up, constantly surrounded with danger and demons.  At least she had the chance of a vaguely normal childhood.   

Covered in paint from completing her latest piece of artwork, Melinda showed Ben her picture.  _"Look, that's Kit our cat.  When you get bigger I'll show you how to do painting and I'll always look after you for ever and ever."_ Said Melinda with the innocence of her age.

_"Sorry honey, but Ben has to have a bath and go to bed,"_ said Cole as he entered the room, smiling as he saw his niece with Ben.  He swiftly scooped up his son.  _"Shall we go have a bath then, Benjamin?"_ he said as he shimmed from the room.

_"Let's go get you ready for bed too honey, because mummy, Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Paige all have to go out for just a little while" _said Piper as she held out her arms to Melinda.

Slipping into her mothers grasp, she settled against her shoulder _"Will you tell me a bedtime story"_ whispered Melinda.

_"A short one"_ Piper promised.

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Paige sat on Phoebe's bed, with a map of San Francisco trying to Scry for the latest demon/warlock that Phoebe's premonitions had shown, whilst Phoebe looked through the book of shadows in the attic.

_"Got you"_ said _Paige "hmmm, what is it with demons and warlocks hanging about in alleys"_ she exclaimed as she began counting in her head the vast number of them they had vanquished in alleys.

_"Phoebe, I've found him_" shouted Paige from the room, whilst she put away the crystal and folded up the map, _"Do you know what were up against yet?"_

Phoebe had just found the page as she heard Paige yell.  _"A Warlock called Kristof, that kills witches to take their powers, the following spell will vanquish him"_ muttered Phoebe to herself_ "Well that seems pretty easy, haven't had just a warlock to deal with for quite a while"_

_"Okay, we've got everything,"_ agreed Phoebe and Paige as they met up at the bottom of the stairs leading to the attic.  _"Piper"_ they shouted in union.

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Hearing her sisters shout, Piper kissed Melinda goodnight and slowly began backing out of Melinda and Ben's bedroom.  _"It's lucky they're both heavy sleepers,"_ sighed Piper with relief as neither was woken by the yells.  Just as she reached the door, Melinda stirred and murmured, _"promise you'll be back when I wake up, mummy?"_

Piper regarded her little girl and softly said, _"I promise"_

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_"So what exactly have we got this time?"_ complained piper

_"A warlock"_ Phoebe said smiling, as she headed down the stairs to the front door

_"A warlock? Just a warlock?"_ said Piper _"Wow this shouldn't take long"_

_"Be careful, "_ warned Leo as he orbed in beside his wife_, "even a warlock, has the power to kill you"_

_"Hi sweetheart"_ murmured Leo

_"Hi"_ said Piper giving him a kiss; _"Melinda and Ben are both asleep so you'll have some piece and quiet, while we're gone"_ proclaimed Piper

As Phoebe put her hand on the front door, Cole shimmered in and complained_ "Leaving without me?"_  

_"Its just a warlock.  The power of three will easily be enough,"_ said Phoebe _"Why don't you stay and make sure Ben's okay while we're gone"_

_"I'm coming whether you want me to or not"_ announced Cole_, "I'm sure Leo is capable of watching Ben and Melinda"_

_"I'll watch them both,"_ said Leo _"taking Cole with you won't do any harm, it will only make you stronger"_

_"He's right,"_ said Piper 

_"Well of course you would agree with him Piper,"_ teased Phoebe.  _"Come on then Cole, we're off to kill a warlock called Kristof"_

_"Umm, Phoebe"_ laughed Paige, as Phoebe began to open the front door and pick up the car keys from the table _" wouldn't it be quicker for us to orb!"_

_"Very good point"_ agreed Phoebe _"It would be quicker that way,"_ she said as Paige grabbed her sisters and orbed out.

Cole shimmered out in pursuit of the others, laughing.

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In the alley;

_"The alley's empty"_ whispered Paige, as she orbed in with Piper and Phoebe.

_"I hadn't noticed"_ Cole replied sarcastically as he shimmered in.  Paige just glared at him.

_"Let's look around then,"_ said piper _"Cole; you and Phoebe go that way,"_ she told them pointing to the left, _"Paige and I'll go this way.  If you find something, yell; then either Paige will orb us to you or Cole, you can shimmer Phoebe and yourself to us"_

_"This is a little dull"_ sighed Cole as he turned to face Phoebe_ "I could think of something a lot more interesting to do now that were alone"_ Cole smiled slyly

_"Cole, this isn't the time for...."_ began Phoebe _"PAIGE, PIPER"_ she finished as she saw Kristof appearing behind Cole

As Cole glanced over his shoulder, Piper and Paige appeared beside them.  Piper froze Kristof and they began reciting the spell Phoebe had copied from the book:

_"together we stand, together we fight_

_together we embrace the light_

_banish this evil from the land_

_remove the rock on which he stands"_

_"Did he just move?"_ thought Cole as they began the spell, but he quickly cleared his doubt when he could see no more signs that Kristof was moving, _"anyway"_ he thought _"Kristof is just a Warlock, he wouldn't be immune to Piper's freezing power"._  

As they finished the spell the four of them looked up expectantly.  Nothing happened!

_"Why didn't it work?"_ inquired Paige

_"I don't know"_ Phoebe confusedly replied, _"It should have worked"_

_"Uh oh"_ thought Cole _"what if he hadn't imagined him moving, this might be more trouble than they thought"_

Leaning over Phoebe, Cole quickly whispered to Piper _"I'm not sure he's actually frozen"_

_"What?"_ exclaimed Piper quietly

_"When you began the spell I thought I saw his hand move, the one with the symbol on it"_ he replied in a murmur

_"I did wonder if one of you would notice I wasn't frozen,"_ laughed Kristof, startling Paige, Piper and Phoebe.  _"This was almost too easy"_ he grinned

_"Why didn't the spell work on you?"_ demanded Piper, _"Why didn't my powers work on you?"_

_"I guess you'll never"_ he coyly replied.  With that he threw out his arms and a terrible power was brought forth.  Piper, Phoebe, Paige and Cole were thrown back against the wall, with his energy crackling around the alley.  Piper, Phoebe and Paige lay crumpled on the floor.  

_"Leo"_ Cole uttered as he lay on the floor, pain radiating through his body.  

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Meanwhile back at the Manor;

Leo went to the kitchen and grabbed something to eat.  _"Unbelievable how hungry, orbing can make you"_ muttered Leo as he finished of his sandwich.  

 He orbed upstairs up to check on his daughter and nephew.  Appearing next to Ben's cot, he looked down to see Ben fast asleep.  Walking quietly over to Melinda's bed he saw his little girl was dreaming deeply, _"Goodnight Princess"_ whispered Leo as he kissed Melinda on her forehead.

It was ironic that it was at this moment, as he looked down on his daughter, that he thought how perfect things were.

Just a fraction of a second later he sensed something had happened, something was terribly wrong, faintly he could hear Cole calling.  He didn't want to leave the children alone, but it would only take a few seconds to find out what was going on and Paige, Phoebe or Pipers life might depend on it.  As he orbed to the alley he murmured to the children, _"I'll be back in a minute"_ even though he knew they couldn't hear him.  

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The Alley;

The sight that greeted him as he appeared in the alley shocked him, like never before.  _"This is impossible,"_ gasped Leo.  He collapsed next to each of the girls in turn, placed his hands over them, pleading in his heart that it would work; it didn't, it was too late, he couldn't heal them, they were all dead.  Going over to Cole he realised that he too had been killed.  Returning to Piper, he crouched beside her lifeless body.  As tears cascaded down his face he whispered to himself _"How did this happen?  Who would have the strength to do all this?"_

In his grief, he didn't see the darklighter approaching from behind him, crossbow in hand.  As the arrow hit him he turned to see the darklighter before him, the man smiled and held the bow to his chest, exposing the symbol (#) on his hand.

_"I love you Piper"_ Leo chocked out, the poison quickly taking hold of him.  His grief became his weakness, as the poison sapped the little strength he had left.  _"I'm so sorry Melinda,"_ he whispered and the blackness engulfed him.

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Back at the manor in the children's room, the only indication anything had just happened was the brief glow of light; the indication Melinda's powers had become unbound.  Meanwhile Melinda and Ben slept on, blissfully unaware.

*I will try and finish the story very soon, please tell me what you think of the story so far*


	2. Old Friends

**Disclaimer:**  I don't own Charmed or any of its characters; my story is fan fiction and no breach of copyright is intended.

Background information: Ben Williams (Turner) is 15 years old; he has the power to shimmer and has premonitions.  Melinda Cottle (Halliwell-Wyatt) is 18 years old and can freeze time (+ she can orb which she currently is unaware of). 

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Present time (2021): 

Ben's House:

Ben began shifting through the clothes in the wardrobe trying to decide what to wear.  _"I hate it when everything changes,"_ muttered Ben angrily; he had lost count of how many foster families he had been through in his lifetime.  Each time he went to a new foster family it usually meant a new school.

_"Ben are you nearly ready, you're going to be late for your first day at school"_ shouted Julie his new foster mother up the stairs.

He reluctantly walked down the stairs to the front door, as he pulled it open Julie asked _"Ben what about breakfast?"_  

_"I'm not hungry"_ he replied and shut the door in her face.

Ben looked down at his watch, _"It's a good job I have my power"_ he thought, _"it would take me half an hour to walk to the new school, which starts in 5 minutes"._

Glancing around to check no one was looking his way, Ben shimmered out.

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The Manor:

Ben appeared next to a run down looking house.  _"I ought to get to school"_ Ben thought glancing down the street, but then his gaze returned to the house, he wasn't sure what made him stop here.  He had felt some kind of pull to the house and curiosity had got the better of him_.  "Curiosity killed the cat,"_ he murmured to himself, then chuckling he thought to himself _"good job I'm not a cat."_

He slowly walked up the pathway that was hard to see because it was covered in weeds.  As he approached the front door he saw a number on the wall.  _"1329"_ he read as he wiped the numbers free of dirt.

He heard a beeping noise and looked down at his watch _"school's started"_ he quietly sighed into the wind_.  "There's something about this house,"_ he pondered as he glanced up at the house for a second time, _"I'll find out where it is, then I suppose I aught to get to school"_

He shimmered out and appeared next to a street sign, _"Prescott Street; doesn't ring any bells"_ he thought and shimmered out off to school

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School:

_"Stupid locker"_ grumbled Ben under his breath, _"I've put the right locker combination in and it still won't open"_

As he was getting more and more frustrated, a voice next to him suggested, _"try kicking it!"_

The boy turned round and stared at her like she was crazy, Melinda sighed and repeated _"you've got to kick it"_ while she simultaneously kicked his locker.  It swung open.  _"Hi, you must be new here, I'm Melinda"_ she held her hand out, for him to shake.  He continued to stare at her.

_"How do you know I'm new?"_ he asked rather rudely in Melinda's opinion; but she just replied, _"you're holding your locker combination and didn't know to kick your locker."_

_"I probably look foolish with my hand stuck out, which he obviously isn't going to shake"_ thought Melinda and she began to drop her hand.  Suddenly the boy grabbed her hand and said_ "My name's...."_ he trailed off staring at her.  _"Okay he's beginning to freak me out,"_ she thought.  _"Sorry, I've got to go, see u around sometime"_ she said hastily and walked away to find her friends.

Ben stared after the girl_, "that was weird,"_ he thought.  When he'd touched the girl's hand he'd had a vision, to most people having a vision would have been weird but he was used to them now, what had been weird was what he saw:

The girl Melinda, had been standing in a house looking at some pictures, she seemed pretty upset.  Behind her he could see a clock showing that it was 3.30.  He then saw her leaving the house and walking down a path to the street.  As the vision had ended he had seen what she saw as she glanced behind her.  The house he had visited this morning!

As she walked away Ben said under his breath_ "maybe I'll see you sooner then you think"_

~ ~

Everything was normal till lunchtime.  Ben weaved around the people milling about in the cafeteria, and found a table to sit down at; a girl from his chemistry class came and sat next to him, then annoyingly decided to proceed talking to him non-stop.  _"Why can't she let me eat in peace?"_ he thought despairingly _"I which she would just stop talking"_.  And then she did!

Melinda flung her arms up and accidentally froze the room as her friend Sarah, who was standing next to her carrying her school lunch, began to fall forwards, as she tripped over_.  "No, no, no, not again" _Melinda said with frustration _ "I hate it when this happens"_.  She looked around the room; everyone was frozen.  

_"Come on unfreeze"_ she murmured, with her eyes glued to the main doors, and her arms supporting Sarah so that she would not fall flat on her face when she unfroze; she had learnt from experience that everything outside of this room would not be frozen.  She was so focused on the main doors, Melinda never noticed one student unfreezing before all the others. 

The girl sitting next to him had stopped talking so abruptly that Ben glanced up; she wasn't moving.  He looked around the room, puzzled, no one was moving.  It was like everyone was frozen.  A movement caught his eyes and he saw Melinda standing across the room looking very nervous and murmuring to herself.  He continued to watch her, the room was so quite you could have heard a pin drop.  He realised Melinda must have done this, _"She froze everyone,"_ he thought

He groaned slightly as he suddenly heard the girl sitting next to him, abruptly continuing her conversation; the room had unfrozen.  _"Well I'll definitely see you at the house tonight"_ he murmured to himself_.  "What was that?"_ asked the girl next to him.  _"Oh, nothing"_ he replied distractedly, "_sorry I've got to go" _and grabbing his stuff he left to find somewhere quiet where he could think.

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The Manor: 

Melinda pushed open the broken back door, and entered the house; she wandered through to the room once used as a living room.  She came here regularly to think, it was her secret, a place to get away.  Melinda stared longingly at the picture on the wall; it showed a couple holding a toddler smiling at the camera, everyone in the picture looked so happy, this was her favourite picture.  Carefully she reached up and took it off the wall so she could see it clearer.  _"Why did you have to leave me?"_ she whispered sadly.  As she stared longingly at the picture her mind wandered, until a sharp clear voice from behind said _"nice picture"_.  Startled she dropped the picture and despairingly heard the glass shatter.  Spinning around she saw the boy she had met at the lockers earlier that day.

Bending down, Ben picked up the picture that had fallen free of the broken frame, _"sorry, I didn't mean to startle you"_ he said apologetically as he handed the picture back to Melinda_.  "Who's the picture of"_ he asked.  She just stared at him.  Then he remembered that he'd never finished introducing himself, _"my name's Ben, Ben Williams" _he stated,_ "So who's the picture of" _he repeated, pointing at it.__

She glanced back at the picture then hesitantly replied _"my parents"._  Ben looked around the room, _"she lives here with her parents," _he thought.  

_"I don't mean to be rude but why don't your parents do the house up a bit because it looks abandoned"_

_"It is abandoned_" she replied quietly, she must have seen the confused look on his face because she hesitatingly continued, _"my parents died, I live with my adoptive parents, I just come here sometimes, it's all that I have of my biological parents.  Never mind you wouldn't understand"_

_"I do, my parents are dead too, though I have no idea who they were.  I live with a foster family"_ then unsure whether he should ask he said, _"how did your parents die?"_

She looked up at Ben and told him what she had never told anyone before _"I don't know, no one could decide".  _She usually told her friends they died in a car accident, only her adopted parents and the police knew of the mystery surrounding her parents death_.  "What about your parents?"_

Wondering how it was possible for no one to be able to decide how someone died, Ben answered her question,_" I don't know either"_ he said _"a guy turned up at an orphanage with me when I was barely a few months old, handed me to the staff and told them my parents were dead."_

_"Do you remember your parents"_ enquired Ben.  Melinda frowned, pondering the question.  _"Not very well" _she replied _"all I remember is that my parents used to read me bedtime stories"_ she gazed up at a picture of a women; who must be her mother, Melinda paused then finished sadly, _" and that my mum broke her promise to me"_

_"What promise?"_

"That's just it, I don't know.  I can't remember.  I know it was an important promise though.   When ever I think of the promise I feel sad and angry but I can't remember what the promise was." Melinda sighed and retracted her thoughts from the past.

An awkward silence fell.  Ben turned away from Melinda and began too look around the rest of the house.  He reached the bottom of a flight of stairs when he was on the second floor, slowly he began to ascend them, just as he could make out a door at the top, Melinda appeared at the bottom and said _"it's an attic but the doors locked, I can't open it"._  Why he continued to the door Ben never knew, but as he placed his hand upon the doorknob he heard a soft click.  Slowly he turned the handle, and the door swung open_.  "I thought you said it was locked"_ he stated and entered the attic.

Stuttering confusedly Melinda hurried up the stairs and followed Ben into the attic _"it was locked, I know it was locked, I've been trying to get in here for years"  _

Ben began looking through the things in the corner of the room, whilst Melinda made her way to the middle of the room where there was a thick book lying open, upon a stand.  Melinda reached for the paper blocking the pages of the book, absentmindedly putting them in her pocket.  _"These are strange poems"_ she thought and began flicking through the book _"no, wait a minute, they look like spells"_ she realised.

As Ben glanced up from the box he was looking through, he saw Melinda was watching him with a strange expression on her face, _"what is it?"_ he asked

Melinda couldn't decide whether to ask him or not.  _"What if he thinks I'm really weird or insane"_ she thought, then slowly she said _"do you believe in magic?" _  Just as she thought he wasn't going to reply, he sighed and said, _"yes".  _

_"Why did she ask me that"_ he wondered and Ben wandered over to see what Melinda was looking at.  He began flicking through the pages of the book and realised that the book was full of what appeared to be spells.  Melinda broke his concentration, by stumbling over her words but finally saying _"if I tell you something will you keep it a secret, never tell anyone, ever, do you promise"_ Ben wondered whether she was about to tell him she was dying or something because she appeared so sombre and serious _"do you promise"_ she insisted again, _"yes"_ he replied wondering what was wrong.

_"I can, I, I, I can"_ she stuttered, and then taking a deep breath she rushed out _"I can freeze time"_ she saw Ben glance back at the book. _"Great he thinks I'm crazy now"_ she thought and then Ben said _"I know"_

_"You believe me,"_ she said ecstatically, then frowning she asked, _"You know, what do you mean you know?"_

_"I saw you freeze everyone in the cafeteria"_ he replied, then thoughtfully he added _"I'm glad you did actually, the girl next to me wouldn't stop talking"_

Just as Melinda opened her mouth to ask Ben why he hadn't frozen, a noise from behind, made her spin.  She saw Ben was turning around as well.

They both swore loudly as a spinning, shimmering region appeared in mid air in front of them.  Both of them began "what is…" as they were both sucked into the region.  Ben, Melinda and the strange region disappeared.  The attic was empty and silent. 

*Finished chapter 2 a little later than planned, I'll put the 3rd chapter up as soon as possible*


	3. Into the Past

**Disclaimer:**  I don't own Charmed or any of its characters; my story is fan fiction and no breach of copyright is intended.

Background information: Ben Williams (Turner) is 15 years old; he has the power to shimmer and has premonitions.  Melinda Cottle (Halliwell-Wyatt) is 18 years old and can freeze time (+ she can orb which she currently is unaware of). 

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**The past (2006):**

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The Manor:****

_"That was very weird,"_ exclaimed Melinda.

_"Was it really?"_ taunted Ben sarcastically, he didn't mean to be rude, but it wasn't everyday you got sucked into some 'thing' that was floating about in the air!

_"You are so annoying"_ Melinda stated as she glared darkly at Ben.  She left the attic, heading to the front door, ignoring Ben who was following her out. 

_"What is it now"_ Ben groaned, as Melinda stopped so suddenly in front of him, that he nearly ended up pushing her down the few remaining stairs.

_"Something's changed"_ Melinda looked around confusedly_.  "The house looks, different"_ she stepped down the last few steps and glancing around quietly walked into the living room.  Shocked and hardly able to trust her eyes, she walked hesitantly towards a crib in the centre of the room, peering in she gasped and turned to look at Ben who was still standing in the doorway, _"it's a baby!"_

_"What?"_ he strode towards the crib peered in and saw that there was indeed, a baby.  _"The baby wasn't in here earlier"_ he declared and then unsure continued_, "Was it?"_

_"No, definitely not, I would have remembered"_ As the baby in the crib began to fuss; Melinda gently pushed Ben out of the way, scooped the child up and held it close. Ben still seemed to be in shock at the sudden appearance of a baby

_"Is it a boy or a girl"_ Ben asked, watching the baby as Melinda tried to calm the small infant.  

_"No idea"_ Melinda replied.  She was about to add that the baby had just 'appeared' in the living room, and Ben seemed more concerned about was whether it was a boy or a girl, when a little girl ran in, saw Melinda & Ben and stopped dead in her tracks.

The little girl stared defiantly at them and demanded in a threatening voice; well, as threatening as a three-year-old child can make it.  _"Who are you?"_  Taking a hesitant step forwards, she then added, _"She said it was my turn to hold him"_

When the little girl had first come in, Melinda thought she was dreaming.  It was impossible.  Then she saw on the wall the picture, the one she had smashed into a million pieces, but it wasn't in a million pieces now.  The picture that contained the frozen memory of a day in the park with her parents, the most recent picture of them she had, the one which she had removed from its frame so many times that it was worn and tatty, now looked like it had been printed just the previous week.  Looking at the girl in front of her, the girl from the picture, she concluded that it probably had been printed just last week.

Whilst Melinda stood rooted to the spot staring at the wall, Ben knelt down so he was at the same height as the little girl, who was nervously pulling at her bunches_.  "My na.."_ he trailed off, as he thought of his visions and the things they had shown him over the years, dangerous things; demons and evil.  What if this was all a trick?  _"My name's Tom and this is my friend Sarah, What's your name?"  _

_"You're a stranger" _she began, beginning to look scared.  Ben then made his biggest mistake so far, he reached out to reassure the girl.  She screamed.  Piercing screams.  Ben stood up, fast, when a man shimmered into the room, _"Uncle Cole"_ the girl half shrieked, half sobbed as she threw herself on him and clutched his leg.

_"Put my son down**"**_ Cole spoke in barely a whisper, but the danger radiating from him was unmistakeable.

 Ben could only watch in fear as Cole held out his free hand, the other arm in a protective hold around the girl.  A fireball began to form on his hand, _"Put him back"_ Ben whispered loudly and urgently to Melinda not taking his eyes off Cole.  Feeling the panic beginning to rise up inside, he turned to Melinda, she wasn't moving, she was going to get them killed, he knew Cole would kill her, kill them both, if she did nothing.  Moving forwards slowly so as not too surprise Cole he prised the baby boy from her arms

As Melinda stared at the girl, at herself, she remembered her uncle for the first time in years; she remembered how he used to read stories to her when her mum and dad were not there, how he looked after her when her mum and dad went places.  Melinda was lost in forgotten memories of her past, when she felt hands lifting the baby from her arms.

Ben took a couple of shaky steps towards the crib, the tiny boy beginning to wriggle in his grasp, as he lay him in the crib he spared a glance at Melinda, she seemed awake and aware of everything again.  She looked shell shocked.  Ben's eyes rose to meet Cole's as he took a retreating step from the crib, and then as if in slow motion, he saw Cole's arm go back, he was going to throw the fireball!  Ben dived towards Melinda and as his body crashed into Melinda's he shimmered them both away from the house.

Cole watched the fireball hit the wall with the departure of the two demons.  He was angry, beyond anger, he was furious, his son and his niece could have been hurt, could have been killed.  He reached into the crib and hugged Ben, his son to his chest, and then bending down he embraced Melinda who had now calmed down.  

A door slammed and he heard his wife and her sisters return, glancing at the new and first burn mark in the freshly decorated living room, he whispered to the children, _"I think they are going to be very cross"._

Phoebe walked into the living room and smiled at her husband, she noticed the recent tears still visible on Melinda's cheeks as Piper's voice behind her asked _"Melinda, honey what's wrong"._  Melinda ran into Piper's arms and Piper picked her up and held her.

From behind them a loud and annoyed voice rang out _"Cole, what is that?" _

Piper and Phoebe spun around to see Paige pointing at a rather large, rather fresh black mark burnt into their fresh 'new' decorated room_.  "Um…"_ Cole began, thinking how best to word this _"first you'd better call Leo"_

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**Thanks to everyone who reviewed my story so far;**

Magic-Amethyst80, BabyGyal21, Beba Turner-Halliwell, Katriona, A. Windsor, countertiger-x, tje-82871, charmedgal005, Wrinklepiggy

Lanfear: I'll try to fit it in somewhere.****

I know I haven't updated in forever and I haven't really got an excuse (well I could make one up but it wouldn't be true) but I am definitely going to finish this story eventually.  I have the storyline written down right through to the end it's just a matter of writing it! 


	4. The Forgotten Past

**Disclaimer:**  I don't own Charmed or any of its characters; my story is fan fiction and no breach of copyright is intended.

Background information: Ben Williams (Turner) is 15 years old; he has the power to shimmer and has premonitions.  Melinda Cottle (Halliwell-Wyatt) is 18 years old and can freeze time (+ she can orb which she currently is unaware of). 

"…speech…"

*…thoughts…*

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The manor, 15 minutes later:

_"Teenagers? Are you sure they were demons?"_ asked Paige;_ "Maybe they were innocent and just accidentally wandered into the house" _Paige trailed off as her explanation sounded lame even to herself.

_"They were demons, because when I threw the fireball at them, they both shimmered out to goodness knows where"_ stated Cole 

Paige still looked sceptical,_ "but teenagers.."_

Phoebe interrupted Paige with _"Demon Ice Cream Van"_ and at Paige's very confused look, explained what she meant.  _"Before we met you, when Prue was still alive, we ran into this guy who owned an ice cream van that caught demon children.  We accidentally got the first owner of the van killed because we thought the guy was a demon and the children were innocent but it was actually the other way around and the kids killed the guy.  Anyway what I mean is just because they were teenagers, it doesn't stop them being demons."_

"Oh.  Well I guess we should go look in the book of shadows and find out who they are then".

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A few streets away:

_"Ow"_ Melinda complained.  _"Wait a minute, how did we get here? What did you do?"_

_"I shimmered us"_ Ben said _"like the man Cole did earlier.  You know the one that tried to kill us."_ Exhausted from his near death experience Ben collapsed on to a bench.

_"Uncle Cole"_ Melinda murmured.  Melinda saw that Ben was watching her with a very confused look on his face.  _"That man was my uncle,"_ she told him as she sat down next to Ben

_"If he was your uncle why did he try and kill us,"_ asked Ben in a voice that clearly said he didn't believe her and thought Melinda was going loopy.

_"You don't understand Ben, he was my…is my…."_ Melinda paused trying to get her head around what she had seen; Ben obviously had no clue to what had just happened.

_"Okay, this will sound really weird, but don't interrupt till I finish"_ Ben nodded in agreement, so Melinda continued.  _"That man is my Uncle Cole, except that he died with my parents 15 years ago, my entire family died.  The house looked just like it used to when I was small and the little girl that came in, that was me, when I was about 3.  I think we've gone back in time."_

_"Back in time, yeah right, time travel doesn't exist,"_ exclaimed Ben. _"Where are you going?"_ he yelled after Melinda's retreating back.  He jumped up and followed after her.

_"There has to be one somewhere,"_ she said as she scoured the area.

_"One what?"_

_"A newspaper, I'm going to prove, that we've gone back in time.  Wait we can go to the park and ask one of the kids the year, that will work"_ Melinda abruptly turned around and headed for the local park.

_"Why don't we ask that women who's coming up the road, it will save walking to the park"_ declared Ben who didn't really want to walk all over the place with Melinda while she was acting all weird.

_"Fine, you can go up to her and ask her what year it is.  I'm so sure she won't think you're strange for not knowing the year,"_ Melinda said sarcastically.  _"Scrap that plan, I've found one"_ she announced happily as she began to route through a rubbish bin.  Ben suddenly became very interested in his watch, and acted as though he couldn't see Melinda.  

_ "Look today's date is 26th of April 2006.  15 years ago"_ Melinda showed Ben the paper as she absentmindedly knocked off bits of rubbish and what was possibly mushy banana, stuck to the front page.

_"Ok, I believe you, now will you put that back" _Melinda tossed it carelessly back.  Ben glanced up and down the street trying to see if anyone had witnessed the whole embarrassing thing, thankfully no one had seen, the woman had turned off their street.

 Suddenly Melinda gasped, _"Oh my god, I remember"_ Melinda sank down on to the kerb _"I remember the promise.  My parents were going out, I made my mum promise to be back when I woke up and my mum said I promise"_ she turned to look up at Ben _"that was the night they died"_

As Ben joined Melinda on the kerb, Melinda nervously began to talk _"I know we don't really know each other and this is a lot to ask, but will you help me save my family.  I'm not sure how to go about it, since I don't know how they died only that it's going to happen in a couple of days but I thought if you helped it might make it easier and since were in the past surely.."_

_"Wow you can ramble"_ but when Ben saw the desperate look on Melinda's face he said _"of course I'll help you, if I can't do anything for my family I might as well as help yours."_

_"Oh thanks so much, I don't know how I'll ever repay you."_  Ben had never seen someone with so much hope and excitement as Melinda had in her face right now.  _"It must have been hard losing your whole family in one go like that when you were small, it was a bit different for me I have no memory of mine at all, but you, well you lost your parents, uncle and cousin all in one go"_

_"And two aunts, it was.."_ Melinda's mind backtracked over what Ben had just said. *Cousin!*  "Ben.  I didn't have a cousin" 

"What do you mean, I saw him, we saw him, the baby was your uncle's son that makes him your cousin"

_"I guess, but I don't remember having a cousin"_ Melinda's mind drifted to the many newspaper articles she had read about her families death.  _"He was never mentioned in the papers either, they never said a baby died but they never found a baby either"_

_"Maybe they left him somewhere that night, so he wasn't with your family and he wasn't with you"_

_"But surely then that person would have gone to the police and said this is the son of the family who were murdered or something.  It still doesn't make sense anyway because we all lived in that house.  Where were the baby things?"_

"Your family is one large riddle!  I think we should just follow your family around and see if we can find any clues to how they died, and maybe along the way we'll discover what happened to the baby"

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Later across the street from P3: 

After Melinda remembered about the club her mum used to work out, they decided to wait near the club rather than the house since they wanted to keep away from Cole.  They didn't want to end up being accidentally killed by him because he didn't understand what was going on.

*Are they ever going to turn up? My legs are really beginning to ache*_ "There they are!"_ Melinda pointed across the street to where she could see her father and uncle talking outside a fairly large building. *My god, dad is just across the street from me, I miss him so much.  This had better work, it has to work!*

_"Lets move closer see if we can hear what there talking about"_

" But what about my uncle, if he sees us he might attack us with that ball of fire he can make appear" 

_"If we get behind that white van over there they shouldn't be able to see us"_ Ben grabbed hold of Melinda, checked no one was watching and shimmered them across the road.

As they watched from behind the van, Melinda saw her mum exit the club to join her dad and uncle outside.  Melinda turned away; it was so hard to be standing here while her mum was just across the street, a mother she hadn't seen in years.  When she felt calm again she turned back to watch.  Her mum and uncle seemed to be getting very mad and when Melinda & Ben saw the fireball beginning to form in Cole's hand they both became very nervous.  They were unaware they were holding there breaths until Leo suddenly grabbed Cole's hand and the fireball disappeared.  They hadn't seen them.  

*This is stupid we can't hear anything, how are we ever going to find out what happened* Melinda was unhappy; the idea of saving her parents hadn't seemed to hard but now it seemed to be slipping further and further out of reach

_"I wish I could do that it'd be so cool."_ Ben turned away from the club and began imagining.  *Don't move or I'll fire* he spun around and flung his hand out imagining he was blowing up the car across the street, just as he heard Melinda yell out _"Ben don't"_

Melinda turned round to find out what Ben had said, only to see his eyes shut, with his arm behind his head and in his hand was a fireball.  _"Ben don't"_ was all Melinda had time for before he flung the fireball straight at a car right next to her family.

The explosion was deafening and knocked Melinda and Ben to the floor.  Melinda looked across the street, expecting to see her family seriously hurt and was shocked to see her mum and dad staring straight at her, but perfectly healthy.  *So much for not letting them notice we were following* 

_"What did you find out about the demons?"_ asked Cole as they waited for Piper.

_"Absolutely nothing.  According to the elders, they can't find any evil going down at the minute"_ As Leo finished telling Cole the news; Piper opened the club door behind them and immediately jumped in with questions about what was going on.

After hearing that nothing was apparently after them, piper got angry_.  "The demons could have taken Melinda and Ben that wasn't nothing!" _ As Leo began to try and calm Piper down, she ignored him and turned to Cole.  _"We have to do something, are you going to stand by and just let an evil demon take your son?"_  Cole was outraged that Piper believed he would give up without fighting to protect his child, he could feel the anger flooding through him.  When Leo touched his arm he looked down to see the fireball forming on his open palm, he destroyed it, shocked that he had lost control so easily._  "We have to stick together and work this out together, we mustn't fight among ourselves"_

Piper, Leo and Cole all spun around as they saw something flash in the corner of their eyes.  Before their eyes they saw a fireball flying in their direction, Leo and Piper orbed out and Cole shimmered out as the fireball caused a catastrophic explosion.  Appearing back on the street a few seconds later, they followed back the path of the fireball and saw the teenage boy, whom Melinda had said was called Tom, lying on the floor, eyes fixed on the car which was burning ferociously next to them.  Besides him they could see the girl called Sarah watching them.  

As Piper raised her hands to freeze the scene, the boy flung his arm sideways, grabbed the girl's arm and shimmered them away.

Piper, Leo and Cole stood alone on the street, watching the car burning fiercely.

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**Thanks to everyone who reviewed my story;**

tigergurl88, Evil Angel4, Lanfear1, A.Windsor, hyperpiper91, CharmingTess, piper5050, goldstranger, Rose Petal Forever, Isilme Lome, Labyris

hallie2: Cole knew children can be demons too ('we all scream for ice cream' season 3) and Melinda was holding his son while little Melinda was screaming when he entered the room & since no one had let them into the house I thought it would make sense for him to think they were dangerous.


	5. A Whitelighter

**Disclaimer:**  I don't own Charmed or any of its characters; my story is fan fiction and no breach of copyright is intended.

Background information: **Ben Williams (Turner) is 15 years old; he has the power to shimmer and has premonitions.  Melinda Cottle (Halliwell-Wyatt) is 18 years old and can freeze time (+ she can orb which she currently is unaware of).**

You might want to re-read chapter 4 I changed it very slightly.

This chapter is dedicated to goldstranger because your review made me stop being lazy and made me get the next chapter up.  (Has it really been 6 months!!)

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After the 'demons' had shimmered out Piper and Leo orbed back to the manor to check on the children, whilst Cole went to find Paige to update her on the recent events.

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At the manor:

"Phoebe" yelled Piper as soon as she appeared in the Manor.  They couldn't see or hear any demonic activity but that didn't always mean anything.

 Phoebe had just managed to get Ben to go to sleep when she heard Piper yell and being a bit jumpy with the recent demon attack knocked a cup off the table, which smashed, across the floor.  Ben's yells followed in quick succession.  Sighing Phoebe picked Ben back up and quickly went to find Piper.  

"What's all the yelling for?" yawned Phoebe from the doorway of the attic, checking around to see if it was safe to bring Ben in with her.  "I'd just managed to get him to go to sleep," moaned Phoebe when she couldn't see any immediate danger, she was feeling sleepy herself because of all the broken nights.  Ben still didn't have the hang of sleeping through the night.  "You're so lucky that Melinda was sleeping through the night by 6 weeks"

"Sorry, but we saw the two demons again, I think they were following us.  We were worried something might have happened to the little ones since the demons have approached them once already." answered Leo calmly, trying not to worry Phoebe more than necessary.

"Leo I really don't like this, can you go check again with the elders, see if they've discovered anything new" Piper was getting more and more worried about the children "the demons have been following us about, we've seen them twice now." 

As Leo orbed out, Cole and Paige appeared in the attic.  "Paige and I discussed what happened today and we think I ought to go down to the Underworld, to see if I can discover any plots involving Melinda and Ben" Cole was watching his wife to see what she thought.

Phoebe's first reaction was to tell Cole that he couldn't risk it, she didn't want to lose him, but one look at her child wriggling in her arms (quiet again after Phoebe had picked him back up) and she knew why Cole was ready to risk his life.  "Be careful" Phoebe pleaded with Cole

"Always for you.   I'll be back as soon as I can." Cole said comfortingly.  "See you shortly son" Cole said as he laid a kiss on his son's forehead and shimmered away.

"Let's check through the book and see if we can find anything that we missed the first time, just to be on the safe side," decide Paige as she walked over to the book of shadows and began flipping through the pages.

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Short while later, at the manor:

Phoebe was pacing nervously around the living room, when Cole shimmered back into the manor.  "What took so long? Did you find anything out? Are you okay? Was there...."

"Take a deep breath," commanded Cole because Phoebe was beginning to hyperventilate.  When she seemed a bit calmer he told her about how there didn't seem to be anything going on in the underworld.  At least not anything to different to the normal everyday occurrences and absolutely nothing involving Ben and Melinda.

Phoebe was unsure whether they should take this as good news or bad.   "We didn't manage to find anything new in the book either"

"Leo didn't find anything new either" said Piper as she entered the living room followed by Leo and Paige  "Nothings changed according to the elders!"

"Maybe we should consider luring the demons out somewhere, but away from the house so that the children are safe.  Set a trap then get them to talk, it works sometimes" Paige suggested.

"I think we should just try and kill them," stated Cole

"And what if that brings more, or they can absorb your powers or something.  We know absolutely nothing about them.  Paige is right, a trap is the safest thing to try." Leo advised them all.

Together they decided to try and lure them demons, then decide where the best place to set a trap was according to how they tried to follow them.  Cole, Phoebe, Piper and Paige decided to try and lure the demons, whilst Leo stayed at the manor to watch the children and be ready to orb them away at the slightest problem.

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In a quiet back alley:

When they caught sight of Melinda and Ben for the third time, Cole lost his temper and decided to take matters into his own hands, ignoring the fact that they knew nothing about the 'demons'.  Cole sent a fireball spinning in the direction of 'the demons'

Melinda turned around just in time to see a fireball in front of her, shock swept through her like a tornado.  Ben, who was still holding Melinda because he'd just shimmered them to the area, felt Melinda stiffen suddenly then the world disappeared into a bright snowstorm and appeared again.  Melinda had orbed for the first time in her life.

Once they were back and the world seemed solid again, Ben shimmered them away.  Both thinking they had to be the worst people ever at following anyone without getting seen.  

"Cole don't " Phoebe yelled, but too late too do anything.  They watched the progress of the fireball, worried the repercussions it could have and yet hoping it would sort everything out once and for all and put everything to rest.

Just before it reached the pair of them, they orbed and the fireball safely passed them by.  As they appeared again the pair shimmered away and they were left speechless to what had just happened.

"They orbed.  Did you see that, they orbed" exclaimed Phoebe; sounding very much like the night they had found Paige.  

"They can't be demons then.  Demons can't orb.  Can they?" Paige asked Cole

"No, not unless they had somehow killed a whitelighter and taken the ability to orb and I doubt that because like the time we found you Paige, they didn't look like they knew they could orb"

"Soooo.." Piper drew out trying to sort out this puzzle.  "One of them is part whitelighter but doesn't know it."

"I guess. But it must be the girl because the boy conjured the fireball, he must be a demon" Phoebe added

"Why would a demon be working with a part Whitelighter trying to kill us?" Cole questioned baffled by it all.

As Phoebe leant against the alley wall trying to sort all the information through her head, she was hit by a premonition.

"What did you see" Cole asked when Phoebe opened her eyes again.

"Someone being killed in this alley by something.  We need to check the book of shadows"

"Wait a minute it wasn't the teenagers then" asked Paige

"No it was something else.  Another problem to add to our troubles" Phoebe replied wearily.

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This chapter is written without italics and I was wondering whether you preferred it with or without the italics in it?

**Thanks for reviewing my story;**

goldstranger, piper5050, Terin and phoenix Lumen


	6. The letter

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Charmed or any of its characters; my story is fan fiction and no breach of copyright is intended.

Background information: **Ben Williams (Turner) is 15 years old; he has the power to shimmer and has premonitions. Melinda Cottle (Halliwell-Wyatt) is 18 years old and can freeze time ( she can orb which she currently is unaware of).**

Here is my Christmas present to everyone. I updated!

As the sisters looked through the book of shadows, Leo orbed up to the elders to see if there were any other whitelighters that had children.

As they began flicking through the book of shadows, Melinda and Ben orbed into the attic behind a pile of boxes to hear what they were saying. They knew it was a bit of a risky thing to do but so far they had found out nothing and they were getting desperate.

"A Warlock called Kristof, that kills witches to take their powers, the following spell will vanquish him" read Phoebe from the book of shadows as she rocked Ben to sleep.

"Well that won't be very hard, which means we can focus on the problem of who these children are" Piper was thankful that it wasn't more complicated because they already had enough to deal with.

Ben saw that Melinda looked like she was about to cry, so he quickly shimmered her out of the house before anyone realised they were in the house. Ben didn't feel like being killed today, thank you.

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"This is stupid, we're just making things worse. All they care about now is finding out who we are, for all I know we're making things worse" Melinda began to cry with despair, she doubted they would ever be able to save her family. As her body shook with sobs, Ben made her sit down on the steps; afraid she would collapse on the spot.

Melinda stuck her hand in her pocket and pulled a hanky out, while Ben tried to calm her sobs worried that her family in the house behind them would be able to hear her.

"What's that?" asked Ben as he reached for the envelope, which had fallen from Melinda's coat pocket, when she'd pulled her hanky out.

"Oh, I found it in that book, while we were in the attic" said Melinda, "it's just a bundle of old paper" she exclaimed as Ben began to remove the pieces of paper from the envelope.

"It's addressed to us," Ben gasped in surprise.

Astounded, Melinda dried her eyes and turned to Ben "what does it say?"

**To Melinda & Ben,**

** You are probably wondering about everything that has happened, so here is a short explanation.** **Ben, it was us that took you as an infant for safety and left you in a home 100's of miles away from Melinda. We hid all existence of you, to keep you safe. Together you would have been in danger, apart you would survive. As we knew it would one day, fate brought you together. The time vortex was designed to appear as soon as the two of you were close enough together and held this letter. We have sent you back to the year 2006 so you can warn your parents of a mistake they made. This letter was written in 2015 after we discovered how the tragic mistake occurred. We have no knowledge of how much time has passed from that moment to now, since we are unsure of your knowledge of your early years we will say this; Melinda, your parents are Piper Halliwell & Leo Wyatt. Ben your parents are Phoebe & Cole Turner. Your mothers and aunt were 3 of the most powerful witches, called the charmed ones. They have a book of magic spells and demon information in their attic called the book of shadows, which you must have already seen as that is where we left this letter. The charmed ones went to vanquish a demon, but wrongly identified it as a warlock, this mistake killed your parents, aunt and all the innocents they should have been there to protect. In truth the demon had come from the future from the year 2015 and was a powerful high level demon, enclosed is the information needed on the demon and the vanquish spell required. You must get the information to them many lives depend on it. Melinda Halliwell-Wyatt, Ben Turner, good luck**

**The elders.**

"That means the baby, my cousin, is you." Melinda was shocked as she took the letter from Ben. "We're family"

"By doing this, I'm saving my parents too. I'll have a family" Ben was amazed, he never thought anything like this could ever happen, he'd accepted years ago that he'd never know his past or who his parents had been. He'd even begun to doubt they'd died; he'd wondered if his parents had just given him up because they hadn't wanted him. But now he'd seen how much he'd been wanted; hadn't his father almost killed them because he thought they might harm baby him.

"I wonder who sent the letter, I mean who are 'the elders'" said Melinda as she turned the letter over looking for any clue as to who they were.

Melinda picked up the remaining piece of paper from the envelope "I think its one of the pages of that book, you know the one the letter mentioned." Her eyes skimmed down the page and began to read "Guiser (the shortened version of his original name the disguiser), is a high level demon that has the ability to take the forms of lower level demons to trick witches into believing he is someone else, which gives him the upper hand in the fight in which, witches rarely win. The Guiser no matter what form in which he hides, can always be identified by a symbol which looks like this #, which appears on his right hand."

Melinda jumped up "We have the answer now, we can save them. All we have to do is tell them about this demon Guiser and they can be prepared and they won't die"

"That's all" Ben scoffed "the second they see us they're going to try and kill us, so where are we going to fit in the explanation for what's going on? While we're running for our lives from a fireball or worse!"

"Fine. It's not quite that simple but we just need to come up with a plan that will give us time to explain everything before they kill us."


End file.
